Alerts

What do we know about this outbreak so far? On 24 December 2019, the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, a division of the National Health Laboratory Service was informed of a suspected outbreak of bloodstream infections in the neonatal unit at Tembisa hospital. The suspected organism was identified as Klebsiella pneumoniae, a bacterial pathogen. We […]

On the 31 December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) China country office reported a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China (1). On 7 January 2020, the causative pathogen was identified as a novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) (2,3). There is currently limited epidemiologic data available of the ages and characteristics of

The cluster of cases with rash, reported in Aberdeen in the Eastern Cape, were due to rubella (German measles) and not measles virus. This analysis was confirmed through extensive laboratory testing conducted by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD). The signs and symptoms of the two conditions– rubella and measles– are very similar, and laboratory